How to Treat or Cure Common Cold

Step 3: What to refuse

• Antibiotics for an uncomplicated cold: they treat bacteria, not viruses, and casual use breeds resistance. Yellow-green mucus mid-cold is normal, not an antibiotic indication
• Multi-ingredient cold syrups for children under 6
• "Cold will turn serious without strong medicine" fear-selling: uncomplicated colds resolve on their own in healthy people

Step 4: Watch for the turn (when to see a doctor)

• Fever above 102 F or beyond 3 days; fever returning after settling
• Breathing difficulty, wheeze, chest pain
• Ear pain; severe one-sided throat pain; white tonsil patches
• Face pain with thick discharge past 10 days
• Symptoms improving then sharply worsening
• Any fever in an infant under 3 months; poor feeding, lethargy or fast breathing in small children
• No improvement by day 10-14

Step 5: The lingering cough

A dry cough outliving the cold by 2-3 weeks is common and harmless - honey, warm fluids, time. A cough with breathlessness, chest pain or colored sputum with fever is a different matter - see a doctor.

One-line summary

Rest, fluids, paracetamol, steam, saline, gargle and honey carry you through a cold's 7-10 days; refuse antibiotics, and let high persistent fever, breathing trouble, ear pain or the 10-day mark send you to a doctor.